2 Days of Small Business Training

For Existing and Start-up Business Owners and Managers

Monday, April 7, 2014

9:00a.m. -

Free Market Research Options: Resources for Business Planning

How to research target markets for business or product ideas. Learn about free resources to get secondary market research from subscription databases.

11:00a.m. -

What Keeps You Up At Night? A Seminar for Business Owners

Sleep better at night knowing that you've covered the financial security needs for your business and yourself.

Goals, concerns, business and personal needs, planning strategies.

1:30p.m. -

Going Paperless: Streamlining Processes to Save Money and Time

Learn about free, or almost free, resources that allow small businesses to track the tasks that need to be accomplished.

Participants will be exposed to a new method of using existing software and cloud computing.

4:30p.m. -

Economics 101 for the Small Business Entrepreneur

Join PNC economist Mekeal Teshome as he focuses on an economic forecast for Central IL and how this relates to your business growth.

There will be plenty of time for questions you might have.

Presented by PNC, No registration Required.

Mekael Teshome is assistant vice president and economist for The PNC Financial Services Group. He is responsible for contributing to PNC's regional, national and international economic analysis. Teshome focuses on state and metropolitan economies within PNC's core economic footprint as well as industry analysis.Teshome has a master's degree in economics from Vanderbilt University and a bachelor's degree in political science and international studies from Taylor University.

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

8:30a.m. -

Social Media Marketing Made Simple

You’ve probably heard of social media. You may even understand the value socialmedia can bring to your business. Now wondering how to start? In this introductorysession, we cover strategies and best practices to get the most out of your social mediaactivities, including:

What social media marketing really is and why use it

Introduction to social media channels and how to evaluate what’s right for your business or organization

How small businesses are using these low-cost tools to gain visibility, develop relationships and drive sales and response

How to create good content for your social media marketing campaigns and time management

How to balance social media marketing with email marketing and your other marketing efforts.

10:30a.m. -

Facebook for Business

In the last couple of decades, the Internet has completely changed the way most companies find and interact with their customers, and vice versa. Now, the incredible popularity of social media sites like Facebook it is changing things once again… and this time it's personal.

That's because, unlike nearly any other form of Internet marketing, Facebook allows us to make strong one-on-one connections with the men and women we'd most like to turn into customers. To take advantage, however, you have to know what works and doesn't, set up some policies, and have plans to use them the right way.

Here is an agenda of the presentation:

Overview of social media marketing

The differences between Facebook pages, business fan pages and groups and why a Facebook Fan Page is best for your business.

This is a presentation and not a hands-on workshop but you can bring your computer to follow along.

1:30p.m. -

Introduction to Exporting: Business in a Globalized World

As business activities have become increasingly international, companies need a strong grasp of domestic, foreign and international requirements for exporting – or a good relationship with their local SBDC International Trade Center.

With nearly 96 percent of the world's customers living outside the United States and two-thirds of the world's purchasing power in foreign countries, tapping into opportunities in the global market is more important than ever for small business owners looking to increase sales and profits.

We will be discussing:

determining if your company is “export-ready

evaluating potential foreign markets for your products and services

assessing and complying with US and foreign trade regulations and laws